SMU Mustangs

10/19/2012

Most - OK, all - of the players involved in the upcoming TCU/Texas Tech football game are too young to recall the last time the Red Raiders visited Fort Worth as conference rivals. Even the players who were actually alive at the time were smart enough to realize that on Nov. 25, 1994 the Southwest Conference sucked.

Texas Tech needed to defeat TCU that afternoon to win the SWC outright. Instead, TCU won and 34 teams could claim a share of the Southwest Conference title that season.

In front of 43,219 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Tech and QB Zebbie Lethridge took a 17-16 lead late in the fourth quarter before they blew it. TCU was led by QB Max Knake and RB Andre Davis; the Frogs scored a late TD to secure a 24-17 win.

It was TCU's first share of SWC title since 1959. The win all but ensured TCU would be invited to the Independence Bowl, and for a brief time convinced TCU people that head coach Pat Sullivan's tenure was going to work out.

Tech finished 6-5 and went to the Cotton Bowl.

This is my favorite part: Texas, TCU, Rice, Baylor, Texas Tech all claimed a share of the SWC title.

10/17/2012

The college game day atmosphere is the "place to be on Saturdays", but in our hyper competitive society with decreasing attention spans people now need a draw to come back to watch the games they paid a ticket to enjoy from the seat rather than the parking lot.

A potential solution? Beer.

On Tuesday afternoon UTEP announced that it will implement the sale of beer at home football games and home basketball games at the venues that are owned and operated by the univeristy. UTEP will begin sales of beer beginning with its home game on Saturday against Tulane.

You have to think one of the primary reasons fans leave the games for the halftime tailgate scene is the chance the drink without having to hide it. We all know fans smuggle in a little container of something to mix in with their Diet Coke (don't want those calories).

With athletic departments searching for any additional way to increase revenue, selling beer is not a final step but an inevitable one to sell tickets.

“That’s obviously part of the equation here. We will see. We will see how ticket sales react to this," said UTEP executive vice president Ricardo Adauto III in a press conference on Tuesday. "And we hope it does. And hopefully Saturday night will be a nice night, people will want to come out and we’ll see how this works."

Prediction: A lot of schools have embraced selling beer in suites, or in a designated beer garden, but general beer sales to the rest of the stadium in university-owned venues has been mostly verbotten.It will take a while, but expect that within the next 10 years most college football and men's basketball games will sell beer so fans can enjoy watching their favorite amateur sports team.

09/25/2012

FORT WORTH, Texas – One year after carefully calculating and
crafting his comments towards SMU and coach June Jones a few days after an
overtime loss in Fort Worth, TCU head coach Gary Patterson was a
changed man on Tuesday afternoon.

“If I was going to do the press conference over again last year, what I would tell you after watching film is SMU kicked our butts. Both sides of the ball,” GP said. "One thing I wouldn't take back is the (comments) on the officiating. After that whole
situation I don’t think I ever got an apology or (they’d) said they didn’t do a
very good job. We will leave it at that."

TCU plays at SMU at 6 p.m. in Dallas on Saturday night.

Patterson is specifically talking about the Conference USA
officiating crew that worked the 40-33 OT SMU win against TCU. As for the rest of those pointed words GP had for SMU one
year ago, he sounds like a man who realizes he did not mean it. He was just mad
his team had lost.

Basically, take the comments off the board. He doesn't hate June Jones. He sounds like a guy who would help out SMU if asked.

"In this world, wins and losses is what keep our jobs, but in the end it's what kind of person you are," GP said. "For us, there are a lot of Dallas and SMU people that have been good to us here. I've talked to a lot of them in the last 365 days. No matter what they say or how they do it, I'm in a position where you are supposed to act better. At least for three hours on game day. I can't make any promises on game day."

He also added: "If I'm going to be the person I'm going to be and I'm going to teach young people I have to act right, too. It's as simple as that. I'm still not taking back what I said about the officials."

Despite the calm feelings, GP does not sound like a guy who is just dying to play SMU in the future. TCU lists SMU as a future opponent through 2016, but one source said this series is contractually signed for eight more seasons. That's the way it should be.

Unless a school breaks a contract it's not as if the Iron Skillet series is going to go away any time soon. Gary said he did not know the particulars of the contract.

"I don't know," GP said when I asked him if he wants to continue the series. "You have to sit down and look at how you do your whole non-conference schedule, not just SMU. How are you going to adjust your whole non-conference schedule."

09/21/2012

Not sure the respective HOAs in and around Highland Park are going to take this without a fight and some lawyering up, but SMU is putting on its Cougar-best outfit to prep for what is actually a highly anticipated edition of the Iron Skillet game next week in Dallas.

On Monday, SMU will make #BeatTCU yard signs and t-shirts available to the first 1,000 fans who show up at the Loyd All Sports Center at noon on Monday, Sept. 24. Those signs better be up to code, people.

Gary said then: "June Jones said we never change. I think June Jones is 1-8 against TCU since he was at Hawaii (and SMU). I don't think he's changed that much either. ... I don't go there."

He also added: "Don't look for any help coming from us ever again. SMU got a lot of help from us over the last three or four years. They are not going to get any help about a game or a conference; they are going to get no help from Gary Patterson. Don't ask me about anything. We've bent over backwards to help them because that's what I believe in."

This subject may come up about three seconds after TCU plays Virginia on Saturday in Fort Worth. (Yes, I have every intention of beating this story into the ground up to and after kickoff against SMU.)

SMU (1-2) has a bye this week to prepare for TCU. The Ponies are 1-2, and have looked very bad in blowout losses at Baylor and at home against Texas A&M.

Credit SMU for continually trying like a dog to make itself better and for marketing as hard as possible. The Ponies in Dallas are not an easy sell, and this requires more work than you might imagine.

Ford Stadium better be full for this game against TCU. This is the first time in forever this rivalry feels like it has some teeth, so the pretty people from SMU and TCU need to be there for the 6 p.m. kickoff.

Tickets for the game are available at SMUMustangs.com or by calling 214-SMU-GAME.

07/27/2012

Somewhere Ron Meyer and the rest of the 1980 SMU Mustang football team must be ashamed. Back in the day the crew on the Hilltop didn't need to hire a prostitute. They probably had someone do it for them.

According to the report, the three football players returned to their off-campus home after an official SMU football banquet to see that more than $3,000 in electronics had been stolen.

One of the players told the cops that the person responsible for the theft was a - cough, cough - escort, whom he hired for $50 in exhange for relations.

Dude, you paid $50 for relations and skipped out on that small tab? What did you expect? Girlfriend's gotta eat. Either way, this is not going to look good on said escort's profile on Angie's List.

SMU is investigating the matter.

SMU is doing a nice job of rebuilding its football program in an effort to win games the way they did when they were a national power in the 1980s. It's just sad that a program that was once so renowned for vice under the table can't do it the right way.

06/22/2012

FORT WORTH - Like so many college coaches, Gary Patterson is not about to dump on a bowl system that may be in the very, very beginning stages of its of existence.

Gary likes the bowls, and the "bowl experience" because it gives so many kids the chance to experience a post season game, etc. Bowls feel like an event. It's the chance to travel, perhaps to the coast. There is swag. And - cough-cough - those "bowl appearance" and "bowl wins" bonuses in his contract, and very like the athletic directors, are kinda nice, too.

"It sounds like 1 will play 4 and 2 will play 3 within the bowl group," GP said. "If they keep that, I am in favor of them having a one-plus. I believe if they take it outside the bowl series then I believe the bowls will go away because I believe we've made them not important."

I like GP, a lot, but we will agree to disagree on this. The bowls aren't important because they are an exhibitions. If they were really important the BCS powers would not have yielded with this four-team playoff model. Declining ratings and attendance are driving this bus. Sports champions in this country are decided through tournament-style brackets, yet college football held on to the financially exclusive practice-game model.

"I think everybody wins - we keep the bowl system, we get what we want and we get to find a true champion," Gary said. "There will be something. I promise you there will be a reason you won't like this one, either. That's just part of it. It will be, 'Why can't we have eight?' I truly believe this - there are about eight to 10 teams that if they get hot that can win a national championship. The key will be coming down to picking those four teams and we'll see how they do it.

"I am excited because I think this gives an answer that everybody can win. Everybody should be happy that you're going to get a form of the playoff that ... is just like a Super Bowl."

05/17/2012

SMU may rank ahead of TCU in academic standings, but the Ponies' inability to match what their cross-town rival has done in athletics likely helped get an AD fired.

The Ponies fired AD Steve Orsini today, only a few weeks after he hired Larry Brown as its men's basketball coach.

Even though SMU has a new football stadium, a winning football team with a head coach who clearly knows what he is doing, it has not translated into the type of off-the-field success the school obviously wants after sinking so much money into the public relations tool that is college athletics.

It is not uncommon for athletic departments to lose money; financial losses in the athletic department are justified as part of the public relations arm of a school. It's a risky formula, but it has worked for TCU.

TCU is enjoying a level of national notoriety in a way it never has before. The Frogs are seeing a tangible return on their investment. SMU has spent millions, but have the perception and popularity of the private school in Dallas changed much in the past decade? Maybe a little but certainly not enough to justify the expense.

Regardless of academic rankings, this power shift can't be easy to watch if you are an SMU alum or administrator.

Baylor may not be better than SMU, but the Bears are in the Big 12.TCU is supposed to be the poor man's SMU, but the Frogs are in the Big 12. The Frogs just announced they slold out their 30,000 season ticket allotment.

How does this happen?

As many improvements as the Ponies made under Orsini, it hasn't been enough. Everything feels like it was just a moment too late, from the hiring of June Jones to moving into a Big East Conference that now looks nothing like it did one year ago.

04/19/2012

Larry Brown may not stay at SMU for more than a few years, if that, but as long as he is in Dallas the Ponies have the best men's basketball program in this region. In terms of landing a "big-time" hire to fill its vacated men's basketball coaching position, SMU popped cross-town rivals TCU.

If you want to make a splash by hiring a coach, you give your athletic director a check that reads "A google" and hire a proven name.

Trent Johnson's arrival to TCU as a replacement to Jim Christian was greeted mostly with a "Huh? Who? Really?" and created zero in terms of buzz, either on campus, locally, regionally and nothing nationally. Johnson may be a decent fit long term, but in terms of the immediate his arrival wasn't much.

Larry Brown's arrival to SMU as the replacement to Matt Doherty is national news, and greeted with the type of excitement this program has not enjoyed in, well, I have no idea. Decades? Larry Brown will make SMU basketball matter.

Why Brown would want to do this at the age of 71, and very likely with more money than he knows what to do with, defies normal logic. Clearly he does not know what else to do other than be around this game.

There are few better basketball teachers than Larry Brown. There have been few better at winning with less talent than Larry Brown. There are few better X and O coaches than Larry Brown.

There also have been few guys who bolt town like this guy. Take the good with the bad, this is a major score for SMU.